E03130: Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Martin (2.25), recounts how, during the night before Christmas, a demon tried to deceive the people of Tours into believing they had been abandoned by *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050). That same night, during mass in Martin's basilica, Bonulf, a paralysed man, already partially healed at a feast of Martin, was fully cured, thereby demonstrating the presence of the saint; AD 575. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 575/581.

Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Martin (Libri de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi) 2.25

After the vigils kept during the night before Christmas, Gregory and others walked from the cathedral to the church of Martin in Tours. On their way there a possessed man caused alarm by claiming that Martin had abandoned Tours because of the misdeeds of its people, and now effected his miracles in Rome.

Ingredientibus autem nobis cum fletu magno basilicam, omnes pavimento prosternimur, orantes, ut sancti viri praesentiam mereamur. Et ecce unus Bonulfus nomine, cui ante tres annos per nimiam valitudinis febrem manus ambae cum uno pede contraxerant, et ad festivitatem beati viri manibus directis, pede adhuc debile claudicabat, ante altare sanctum sternitur, orans, ut, qui sibi manus aridas restituerat, pedem quoque contractum simili virtute diregeret. In hac autem oratione a febre nimia circumdatur et tamquam extensus in aeculeum nervorum dolore torquetur. Interea de supplice dolor excitet contumacem, et, qui venerat inquerere medicinam, coepit inferre calumniam. Aiebat enim: 'O domne Martine, sanitatem ad te, non tormenta quaesivi. Quam si non mereor, vel doloribus non adfligar'. Cumque nos cum fletibus circumstantes beati praestolaremur adventum, et inter haec sancta solemnia agerentur, oblatis super altere sacris muneribus, misteriumque corporis ac sanguinis Christi palla ex more coopertum, molliuntur contracturae nervorum, et disrupto post infirmi poplitae corio, diffluente sanguinis rivo, pedem extendit incolomem.

'Then we entered the church with much weeping, prostrated ourselves on the floor, and prayed that we might be worthy of the holy man’s presence. And behold, there was a man named Bonulf, whose two hands as well as one foot had been crippled three years previously because of the high fever from an illness; although his hands had been restored during a festival of the blessed man, he limped because his foot was still lame. He now knelt before the holy altar and prayed that he who had restored his withered hands might also straighten his crippled foot with a similar display of his power. During his prayer Bonulf was surrounded with an intense heat and, as if stabbed with a sharp point, tormented with pain in his tendons. Then the pain made the suppliant defiant, and the man who had come to request medicine began to defame [the saint]. For Bonulf said: 'O lord Martin, I sought my health from you, not torments. If I do not deserve my health, let me not be tormented by these pains.' We were standing nearby weeping and hoping for the arrival of the blessed Martin. Meanwhile the sacred ceremonies were being performed and the holy gifts were placed on the altar. While the mystery of the body and blood of Christ was as usual covered by a cloth, the knots on Bonulf’s tendons were softened, the skin of the man’s lame knee was torn, a trickle of blood flowed out, and he stretched out a healthy foot.'

Gregory and the congregation gave thanks for Martin's presence.

Text: Krusch 1969, 167-168. Translation: Van Dam 1993, 240-24, lightly modified (de Nie 2015, 583-587).